A New First Presidency
I've had time to sit and think about my feelings on the new First Presidency. So here we go.
There is a genuine desire on the part of Latter-day Saints to feel like there is divine wisdom reflected in who serves in the First Presidency.
"They're in those positions because we need them there," I've heard many say. Now, we won't talk about how much that fell apart during the COVID-19 pandemic, despite having a prophet who was a doctor. (I recently had someone invoke Packer against me on vaccination and nearly had to bite through my tongue not to throw his polio back in his face.)
I know this is how many of the faithful around me are attempting to make sense of the change right now: "What could be coming that we need two lawyers in the First Presidency?" Cue speculation.
And here's the thing: I don't care. I don't care what the Church is attempting to accomplish by having two lawyers at the head of one of the wealthiest institutions in the world. Whatever the reason is, it's not going to be for things that will actually benefit our people most.
I've already mentioned that I believe he's planning to attempt to canonize the family proclamation. That's what two lawyers in the First Presidency indicates to me. President Oaks already told everyone where his head is during his birthrate talk in general conference. He has no intentions of backing down because he genuinely believes that ideological adoption of and compliance with the family proclamation will raise the birth rate within the Church. He believes it enough to go to court over it. Let's unpack that.
Why would he do that?
Because he thinks it's the easiest way to confront many problems at once. He genuinely believes the family proclamation has the power to stop people from leaving the Church. He also believes he can chase out non conformists faster this way. He wants to get the institution back to a state of ideological homogeneity and lift from there. None of this loosey goosey tolerance and acceptance of a plurality of thought and practice approach. You'll do it his way or you'll get out.
There are several problems with that. I won't address them all. Let's go with the best one though: It's not going to work.
The First Presidency should never, ever go toe to toe with the membership of the Church with politics. They tried to do that during the Great Depression with the New Deal. And they failed. Badly. Publicly. And with gusto. Prophets can set whatever priorities they want. It doesn't mean anyone has to listen to them. This isn't court. You can't just cite laws and force people into compliance with you. Regular people don't work like that. They can look you right in your face and say "No."
Members of the Church did that with New Deal policies. Church members embraced the New Deal and supported those policies when the First Presidency didn't want them to. Why? Because they were just as unemployed and struggling as everyone else was at the time. They were hungry and scared. So they took the help that was being offered to them from the government without hand wringing over whether it was "too Communist" or not. When you're hungry and stressed enough, ideological purity is a luxury that goes right out the window.
And now, let's go to a more current example. Let's talk about Prop 8. When was Prop 8? During the Housing Recession, circa 2008. Why did Prop 8 fail? Because no one wants to waste money and energy on culture wars and identity politics when the economy is in the toilet.
Who would choose to make the family proclamation their focus during an extravaganza of government corruption and failed policies that have dramatically increased the cost of living for all of us? Someone who didn't learn their lesson from making this mistake the first time. Someone who feels they just need a second chance to turn it all around, who could relitigate gay marriage again if they just got the chance. Someone who came out of Prop 8 with egg on their faces who can't, WON'T let it go. And someone who doesn't realize that twenty years of instability and losses haven't made people any more willing to crucify queer people in the name of the Church.
It's unnecessary, adds nothing to our faith, and doesn't make living or paying bills any easier, for any of us. I don't have the time, money, or energy to assuage ego like that. I think those who did back in 2008 have long enough memories that they're not likely to do so again.
So in my mind, this is about to be a losing battle that gets really ugly. And I've already decided I'm not wasting my energy on it.
My objective through this is simple. Keep as many people alive through what's about to happen as I can. Especially our young queer people who don't even realize that about themselves yet. You cannot stop queer Mormons from happening. No amount of ideological purity can stop them from happening. There's only one thing to do. Affirm and embrace them. Make room in our theology for them. Stop acting like they're accidents or mistakes instead of people.
It's only irreconcilable if we choose it to be.
I intend to be the person in every room speaking truth and reason to the people around me. That's what I've always done. The job hasn't changed for me just because President Nelson died. And it hasn't changed now that two aggressively conservative lawyers run the show.
The fact is, having two lawyers in the First Presidency could be amazing for supporting workers' rights all over the world. The policy failures that actually prevent people from having more children and getting abortions could have two really powerful champions in Oaks and Christofferson. They could champion paid maternity and paternity leave. They could champion affordable child care. They could support unions.. They could go to bat for policies that will actually help all families, including nuclear families, to thrive.
They could do it. But we know they won't. So I'm not getting excited. I'm also not getting myself worked up. This is going about how I thought it would, so far.
And my version of sustaining the prophet right now looks like doing damage control on all the hearts he's about to break.
